DGI 2012 envisages future of geoint

Publish Date: 27 January 2012

UK: The last day of DGI 2012 had two sessions dedicated to ‘Information sharing and exploitation’ and ‘Middle East and North Africa’. The day witnessed an interesting mix of discussion revolving around a range of issues:

Big data
“We are moving towards a new era of cloud computing and big data,” said Maj Gen USA (retd) John M. Custer, Director of Federal Strategic Missions and Programs, EMC. “With a huge volume and the kind of data that is being generated today, the challenge is to move from network centricity to data centricity,” he added.
Talking about how future will keep a check on our activities, he said, “In the modern world, every human and mechanical activity leaves a trail of data. We call it digital footprint.”

UAVs
With the proliferation of UAVs flying a wide array of sensors, the US and coalition forces have greatly enhanced their capabilities to support dynamic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The increased capabilities have led to new challenges. James P. Dolan, Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives Group, Textron Systems Corporation, introduced the audience to some of these challenges, like the ability of an analyst to effectively analyse objects or activities observed on motion imagery and provide timely, value-added information to decision makers.

Predictive Analysis
“What if you could stop a crime before it happens? In other words, deny a criminal an opportunity to do the crime?” asked Captain Sean Malinowski, Commanding Officer, Foothill Patrol Division, Los Angeles Police Department. Captain Malinowski, has begun a 6-month trial programme to determine the effectiveness of predictive analysis in his area of operation in the US. He describes predictive analysis as ‘A place based approach to crime analysis that utilises algorithm driven crime forecasts to inform decision making to prevent crime’. In simple words, it’s crime forecasting.

Anti-piracy operations
Piracy is a major problem threatening the maritime community, especially in the Gulf of Aden. Experts discussed how remote sensing and geoint can aid in counter-piracy operations. Some of the challenges encountered in the process are maintaining accurate real-time positions of the vessels, getting geospatial information about small vessels as they don’t AIS, and so on. Colonel Neil Thompson (retd), Managing Partner, WCGroup, highlighted an interesting point when he showed satellite images of how piracy has led to economic development in Somalia.

Future
Barry Barlow, Head of Acquisitions, NGA, talked about the agency’s vision for the future and how it is working in that direction. NGA is working towards building apps which will provide online on-demand information to its soldiers. It also intends to make geoint available in the hands of its users by building geospatial apps for phones.

Source: http://geospatialworld.net/

Draft guidelines for procurement of geospatial products

Publish Date: 23 January 2012

US: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) released second draft of Guidelines for Procurement of Commercial Geospatial Mapping Products. It is updated from the April 2011 version. The document is considered ‘Draft for Review’ and is being published at this time to encourage wide dissemination and comment.

Readers can submit comments by email to Product_Guidelines@asprs.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it no later than February 20, 2012. The current plan is to review all comments and finalise the document for ASPRS Board approval at its March 23, 2012 meeting.

The Guidelines were prepared by a working committee within the ASPRS Professional Practice Division. Chaired by Charles Mondello of Pictometry International Corp., the committee includes representation from the commercial sector, state, and federal government. The intent of the Guidelines is to provide clarification on what constitutes a commercial geospatial mapping product and how procurement of products is differentiated from procurement of professional services.

In fall 2009, ASPRS adopted the ‘Guidelines for Procurement of Professional Aerial Imagery, Photogrammetry, Lidar and Related Remote Sensor-based Geospatial Mapping Services,’ which provides recommendations on the methodology of procuring professional services. This document updated procurement guidelines that were first adopted in 1986.

The need for differentiating best practices for the procurement of professional services, technical services, and commercial geospatial products has led to the ongoing efforts in guideline development. Once approved by the ASPRS Board, these Guidelines will be paired with the 2009 Professional Services Guidelines to form a complete package of procurement guidelines for the industry.

source: http://geospatialworld.net/

The Future of Commercial GEOINT

Mon, 23 January, 2012
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By Joshua Hartman

In September, Kevin Resch and I released a study through the Center for Strategic Space Studies (CS3) regarding the future of commercial geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). The study assessed exciting advances in technologies, applications, products and services, largely occurring outside of U.S. government efforts. The report suggested that these changes are powerfully reshaping the GEOINT world and, if appropriately leveraged, could significantly aid the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in achieving its mission. The purpose of the study was to help the U.S. government and U.S. commercial imagery companies to identify, understand and anticipate such changes to better harness the power of future commercial GEOINT solutions.

Today two companies comprise the majority of commercial GEOINT services for the U.S. government: DigitalGlobe and GeoEye. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the looming reductions to defense and intelligence spending, congressional committees and components of the executive branch are intensely scrutinizing NGA’s commercial imagery budget and raising questions about the value of its contribution to national security. This scrutiny, the changes described in the CS3 report, and the implementation of bold new vision by NGA Director Letitia Long to transform the agency’s mission approach, have forced the U.S. government and industry to reassess the future of commercial GEOINT services.

Keeping an eye on the planet

Publish Date: 24 January 2012
Prof. Arup Dasgupta
Geospatial World, Managing Editor



With technology advancements in sensors, payload weights and data processing, earth observation as a domain is transforming rapidly. And with its application expanding across the domains, the future looks replete with opportunities. Here’s an exhaustive analysis of the technology trends...


The technology of earth observation has seen many changes over the past few years with four major trends emerging. The first is the government- funded missions for earth observation, using a variety of sensors on large satellites which address mapping as well as scientific studies. The news, however, is dominated by the second trend consisting of commercial imaging satellites with sub-metre spatial resolution for land applications. The third is a shift away from big multi-sensor satellites towards small single-function satellites. The fourth trend is to use small satellites in constellations and swarms. Furthermore, these trends tend to overlap with each other. RapidEye is a commercial constellation of small satellites while Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) is government owned but operated by DMCii.